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igotchu privacy policy

Version [1.0]. Effective [date]. Last updated [date].

The short version

• igotchu is where people write to the people they’re close to. To do that, we keep what people write, who it’s for, and the phone numbers that connect them.
• That includes people who haven’t signed up. If someone writes to you, we keep your number and their message so you can open it from a link.
• Messages can include personal things, like health or relationships. We use what’s in them only to deliver messages and keep igotchu safe. We don’t read them for ads, we don’t build profiles from them, and we don’t train AI on them.
• We don’t sell your data or share it with advertisers. igotchu.app has no trackers.
• An automatic word check runs on your phone and our server when you tap Send. No AI is involved, and nothing is sent to an AI company.
• Whoever wrote a message can take it back. When they do, it’s deleted, except copies held for a report or the law.
• You can see, fix, download or delete your data, even if you never signed up. Write to privacy@igotchu.app.
• igotchu is for people 18 and older.

The rest of this page says the same things in more detail. A separate page, the Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy, covers health information under Washington’s and Nevada’s laws. Our Terms and Safety page cover the rules for using igotchu and how reports work.

1. Who we are

igotchu is run by [publisher: jacobstarr LLC, a Louisiana limited liability company], [business address]. We decide how your data is used, so we’re responsible for it.

• Privacy questions and requests: privacy@igotchu.app
• Safety and reports: safety@igotchu.app
• Legal and police requests: legal@igotchu.app
• Everything else: support@igotchu.app

igotchu is offered only in the United States, and your data is stored in the United States.

2. What we collect, and from whom

If you have an account

If someone wrote to you and you don’t use igotchu

You never signed up, so here is exactly what we hold:

• Your phone number and the name the writer gave you (up to 30 characters).
• The message written to you, with its photos.
• Whether the link was opened, and when. This is stored on the link, not on you. Anyone with the link can open it, so we can’t tell who opened it.
• A reaction, if someone taps one on the page (one per link).
• A report, if you make one from the page, with the details you add.
• “Don’t contact me again”: if you use it, we send a code to your number to check it’s yours, and then add a scrambled form of your number (a code made from it) to that writer’s list so we can honor it. That writer’s messages to you that you haven’t kept stop reaching you right away. Like the rest of what’s listed here, they’re deleted 12 months after the link was last opened. To have everything about your number deleted sooner, write to us.

We don’t know anything else about you. igotchu never texts you: the writer sends the link from their own phone. The only texts igotchu ever sends are sign-in codes people ask for.

On igotchu.app

• The message page shows the message only after you tap Open, and loads the photos from our own address.
• Bot checks: Cloudflare Turnstile checks that a person, not a script, is reporting or asking for a code. It looks at signals from your browser to do that.
• Abuse limits: we count requests by a scrambled form of your IP address (a code made from it), so one address can’t flood a link.
• One cookie, only if you confirm “Don’t contact me again” on that browser, so it stops showing that writer’s links.
• No trackers. No analytics scripts, no ad pixels, no social media plugins.

What we never collect

Your address book, your location (we strip it from photos), your contacts’ details beyond the person you picked, your face or voice as a biometric, your birthday or age range, payment card numbers, or Social Security numbers.

3. “Show me to people who have my number”

When someone picks a contact, igotchu checks that one number and tells them whether the person is on igotchu, so a message to someone who’s on igotchu goes straight to the app instead of by text.

• What it reveals: only that a number belongs to someone on igotchu. Not your name, your friends or anything else.
• Who shows as on igotchu: someone whose account is active, who has this setting on, and who has used igotchu recently on a phone that gets igotchu’s notifications. Everyone else gets the message by text, from the writer’s own phone.
• What we store about the check: only how many numbers each account checked that day, so the daily limit works. Never which numbers. Each account, and each phone, can check a limited number of contacts a day.
• People who’ve turned it off, blocked the writer, or used “Don’t contact me again” all look “not on igotchu.” Friends always show as friends, so a block or a removal never shows.
• To turn it off: Settings > Privacy > Show me to people who have my number. It’s on by default. When it’s off, people can still write to you; they’ll send the link by text.

4. How we use your data

We use data only to:

1. Run igotchu: sign you in, deliver and show messages, run the bank, the widget, reactions, notes, friends and notifications.
2. Keep igotchu safe: the word check, pattern signals (section 5), reports, blocks and removals.
3. Follow the law: the age check, child-safety reports, valid legal requests.
4. Fix and improve igotchu, using app events and crash reports, never message content.
5. Talk to you about your account or a request you made.

We don’t use your data for anything else. In particular:

• No ads. We don’t sell your data or share it with advertisers. We have never sold personal data and won’t.
• No profiles or guesses about you from what you write or receive.
• No AI training on messages or photos, by us or anyone else.
• No data brokers. We don’t buy or sell lists.
• Partnerships never involve data. If igotchu ever works with another company, it won’t include your data.

Sensitive information

Messages can mention someone’s health, sexuality, religion, relationships or other personal things. igotchu doesn’t ask for this, but the words people write can include it. We treat every message as sensitive:

• We use what’s in a message only to deliver it and keep igotchu safe.
• At sign-up you give a separate consent for this, apart from accepting the Terms. It reads: “Messages can include personal things, like health or relationships. igotchu uses them only to deliver messages and keep igotchu safe.”
• To withdraw that consent, write to privacy@igotchu.app or delete your account in Settings. igotchu can’t deliver messages without handling what’s in them, so withdrawing it closes your account. You can also take back any message you wrote and delete any you received (Hide it, then Delete in Settings > Hidden), at any time.

5. The safety check, pattern signals and human review

The word check

• When you tap Send, an automatic check compares the words with a list of words and phrases. It runs on your phone and again on our server. Notes are checked the same way.
• It stops slurs, threats, sexual content and encouragement of self-harm, in English and Spanish, and pauses stock insults. It never changes your words.
• No AI is involved, and no message is sent to an AI company. A word list makes the call, and it can be wrong. If it stops you, “This is a mistake” reaches us.
• We save which version of the list checked each message.

Daily counts

Each day, for each rule in the list, we count what happened: stopped, paused, edited, sent anyway, discarded, or “This is a mistake,” and whether everyone the message was for was already a friend. The counts hold no words, no names, no numbers and no account. We use them to fix rules that make mistakes.

Crisis help

If your own words match certain phrases, your phone quietly shows a help line. This happens only on your phone. It’s never sent to us, stored or counted, and the message isn’t stopped for it. igotchu isn’t a crisis service and can’t tell how anyone is doing.

Pattern signals

To catch spam without anyone reading messages, our server checks how fast someone is sending, how many new numbers they’ve written to in the last hour and day, and whether the same text is going to many numbers, or to one number again and again within minutes. To spot the same text, it compares a short code made from the text. These checks can slow down sending for a while. They never show on the recipient’s side.

When a person looks

[Open decision #26. Recommended version:]

People at igotchu don’t read messages as a matter of course. We may review messages when they’re reported, or when our systems flag a pattern that looks like abuse. We start with counts and timing, and open a message’s words only when it looks like abuse. Every look is logged: who, when and why.

[Alternative, today’s stance:]

People at igotchu don’t read messages. We only look at a message when someone reports it, or appeals one of our decisions. Every look is logged: who, when and why.

Right now, reports are handled by igotchu’s founder, with [a second reviewer, the engineer friend, who sees reports only].

6. The age check

igotchu is for people 18 and older.

• Before we ask, the app explains why: it’s to follow the law.
• We ask Apple for your age range at sign-up, because the law requires apps like igotchu to confirm age. Without it, igotchu can’t make an account. We never ask for your birthday.
• We keep only a yes and the date. Never your age range, your birthday or anything Apple sends beyond that. Apple’s age information is used only for the age check.
• igotchu doesn’t verify ages, and the check can’t be perfect.

7. Photos

• You can add up to 4 photos to a message. We remove location and other hidden details from each photo when it’s uploaded.
• We keep the photo at the size you sent it, plus a smaller copy for display.
• We keep a fingerprint of each photo to block images removed for abuse from coming back.
• Anyone can ask us to remove an intimate image shared without consent, through the form on the Safety page. The image is hidden the moment the request comes in.

8. Who we share data with

Recipients of a message. What you write goes to the people you wrote it for. Anyone the writer sends the link to can read it. A shared memory shows every recipient’s name to the others.

Your friends and the people you write to see your name. A writer sees reactions and notes you choose to add, and that you added them. They never see “delivered,” “seen” or read receipts.

Companies that run igotchu for us. Each one handles data only to provide its service to us, and is bound by contract to protect it at least as well as this policy does. [Data processing agreements to sign with each before launch.]

When the law requires it.

• Child safety: we report child sexual abuse material to NCMEC, as federal law requires (18 U.S.C. 2258A).
• Police and courts: we share data only for a valid legal request. We need a subpoena for basic account details and a warrant for message content. In an emergency where someone could be seriously hurt, we may share what’s needed, after confirming the request is real. We tell the person affected unless the law forbids it. Requests go to legal@igotchu.app.
• To protect people: to stop fraud, abuse or a threat to someone’s safety.

If igotchu changes hands. If igotchu moves to another company (for example, a new company Jacob forms to run igotchu), your data moves with it under this policy, and we’ll tell you before it happens.

We don’t share personal data with anyone for their own marketing (California’s “Shine the Light” law).

9. How long we keep data

Deleting your account. You choose between “Leave them” (messages people kept remain in their banks, with the name you had when you left, and the rest are removed) and “Take them all back” (everything you wrote leaves every bank). Neither is chosen for you. For 30 days your account is switched off and can be reclaimed with your Apple or Google sign-in. Then your account and the data above are deleted.

Holds. Taking a message back, deleting one from Hidden or deleting an account removes it everywhere people can see it (hiding it only takes it off your bank and widget, into Settings > Hidden, until you unhide or delete it). The only copies kept are ones held for a report, NCMEC or a valid legal request, for the times above. Copies people saved to their own phones (a wallpaper, a screenshot) are theirs, and we can’t reach them.

10. Your rights

Everyone gets these rights, wherever you live, whether or not you have an account. You can:

• Know and see what we hold about you, and the companies we’ve shared it with (section 8 lists them).
• Correct something that’s wrong. You can change your name in Settings.
• Delete your data. With an account: Settings > Delete account, or take back messages you wrote, and hide messages you received and then delete them in Settings > Hidden.
• Download a copy of your data in a format you can use.
• Withdraw consent, including the sensitive-information consent (section 4).
• Opt out of sale, targeted advertising and profiling that has legal or similar effects. We don’t do any of these, so there’s nothing to turn off, but you can still ask.
• Appeal if we turn down a request.
• Be treated the same for using any of these rights.

How to use them

• Email privacy@igotchu.app and say what you’d like. You don’t need an account.
• If you don’t use igotchu and want messages from one person to stop, tap “Don’t contact me again” on the message page. Their messages stop reaching you right away, and they’re deleted with the rest of your data 12 months after the link was last opened. To have everything about your number deleted sooner, write to us.
• We check it’s you by sending a code to your phone number. We don’t ask for ID or anything we don’t already have, and we use what you give us only to handle the request.
• Someone can ask for you (an authorized agent) with your signed permission. We may still check with you directly.
• We answer within 45 days. If we need more time, we’ll tell you why within those 45 days and take up to 45 more. Requests are free, up to twice a year.
• To appeal, reply to our answer or write to privacy@igotchu.app with “Appeal.” We decide within 45 days and explain why. If you’re still unhappy, you can contact your state’s attorney general, and we’ll tell you how.

When we delete data, we also tell the companies in section 8 to delete it.

Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track

We don’t sell or share data for advertising, and igotchu.app has no trackers. We still honor Global Privacy Control as an opt-out request from that browser. igotchu.app treats Do Not Track the same way: nothing tracks you either way, and no other company tracks you on igotchu.app.

State notes

• California: this policy covers the categories, sources, purposes and recipients California law asks for. We don’t sell or share personal information, or use sensitive personal information beyond what’s needed to provide igotchu.
• Nevada: we don’t sell covered information. Requests go to privacy@igotchu.app.
• Washington, Nevada and similar health-data laws: see the Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy.

11. Children

igotchu is only for people 18 and older, and we don’t knowingly collect data from anyone younger.

• If we learn an account belongs to someone under 18, we close it and delete its data, except anything we must hold for a report or the law.
• If someone wrote to a child who doesn’t use igotchu, a parent or guardian can ask us to delete it at privacy@igotchu.app.

12. Security

We protect data with encryption in transit and at rest at our providers, access limited to the few people who need it, sign-in codes instead of passwords, limits on repeated requests, and a written security plan. Message links are long random codes, and our server stores only a scrambled form of each one.

No system is perfectly secure, and we won’t claim ours is. Messages are not end-to-end encrypted: our server has to read them to check and deliver them. Anyone with a message’s link can read it, so share links the way you’d share the words themselves.

If a breach affects your data, we’ll tell you and the authorities as quickly as we can, within the time the law sets.

13. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we’ll update the date and version at the top. For a significant change, like a new use of data or a new kind of company getting it, we’ll tell you in the app before it takes effect, and ask for your consent again where the law requires it. Earlier versions are available on request.

14. Contact

privacy@igotchu.app
[publisher: jacobstarr LLC], [business address]